NHL roundup: Devils burn Stars 5-1 as Connor Hellebuyck wins his New Jersey debut

DALLAS (AP) — Connor Hellebuyck stopped 16 of the 17 shots he faced to win his New Jersey debut, Nico Hischier scored two goals, and the Devils beat the Dallas Stars 5-1 on Tuesday night.

Hellebuyck, the three-time Vezina Trophy winner, started four days after being traded by the Winnipeg Jets following his suspension for failing to report to training camp. It was his first win since a 3-2 decision in St. Louis on April 9.

The Hughes brothers, Jack and Luke, and Jesper Boqvist, also scored for the Devils, who have won four consecutive games.

Justin Hryckowian scored for the Stars, who had a five-game winning streak snapped. Casey DeSmith, making his third start of the season, made 22 saves after allowing only two goals in each of his previous outings.

The five goals are the season high against Dallas, which went into play leading the NHL with a 1.68 goals-against average.

Hischier, the team captain in his 10th season with New Jersey, provided a 2-0 lead at 2:41 of the first period and 38 seconds into the second. Dallas’ challenge for goaltender interference against Timo Meier on the first goal was denied. Hischier has a team-high seven goals and two two-goal games.

Boqvist made it 3-0 midway through the second. After Hryckowian’s deflection pulled Dallas back within two goals at 16:08 of the second, Luke Hughes answered 28 seconds later.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

BLUE JACKETS 4 FLYERS 3 (OT)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kent Johnson scored his second goal of the game 2:22 into overtime and Columbus beat Philadelphia after coughing up a three-goal lead.

Columbus scored three goals in a 2:46 span of the first period to lead 3-0 after one.

Johnson set up Adam Fantilli for the first goal at 10:58 of the first period, and then deflected Zach Werenski’s shot past Flyers goalie Dan Vladar at 12:54. Denton Mateychuk scored for Columbus 50 seconds later. Cam Talbot made 28 saves for his third win this season.

Johnson scored the overtime winner on a two-on-none breakaway, following a give-and-go with Fantilli. It was Johnson’s sixth goal of the season.

Philadelphia forced overtime by outshooting Columbus 28-6 over the final two periods.

Noah Cates scored his first goal of the season by poking a loose puck past Talbot, while Trevor Zegras cut the deficit to 3-2 with just under five minutes left in regulation. Zegras slid a pass to Tyson Foerster, who fired a shot on Talbot that Jamie Drysdale tipped into the net with 11 seconds remaining in regulation time.

Vladar made 11 saves.

BLACKHAWKS 2 KINGS 1

CHICAGO (AP) — Wyatt Kaiser snapped a third-period tie, Spencer Knight made 25 saves, and Chicago beat Los Angeles 2-1.

Chicago stopped a three-game slide while improving to 3-4-0 on a seven-game homestand. Roman Kantserov scored in the second, and the Blackhawks killed off a double-minor penalty on defenceman Sam Rinzel for high-sticking.

Kaiser picked up his first goal of the season at 7:17, beating Anton Forsberg through the goaltender’s legs with a well-placed shot from the left circle. It was the 11th goal for the defenceman in 187 career games.

Samuel Helenius scored for Los Angeles in the finale of a 3-2-0 trip. Forsberg stopped 25 shots.

Kings captain Drew Doughty and forward Corey Perry were scratched after they played in Monday’s 6-3 victory over the New York Rangers.

The Blackhawks played without defenceman Bowen Byram, who missed his fifth consecutive game with an upper-body injury.

CANADIENS 2 BLUES 0

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jacob Fowler made a career-high 46 saves for his second shutout of the season, and Zachary Bolduc and Florian Xhekaj scored as Montreal defeated St. Louis.

Mike Matheson had two assists as the Canadiens (7-3-2) improved to 4-1-1 on the road this season with their third straight away victory. Fowler’s shutout was his third in 24 career starts.

The Blues (5-6-1) fell to 3-2-1 at home as they were blanked for the second straight game. They lost 4-0 to the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.

Bolduc put the Canadiens ahead with 11:23 left in the second period, slapping a one-timer from the right circle for his fifth goal of the season. Bolduc’s first goal against his former team was assisted by Matheson and Alexandre Texier.

A first-round draft pick in 2021 by St. Louis, Bolduc scored 19 goals for the Blues during the 2024-25 season before being traded to the Canadiens for defenceman Logan Mailloux. The 23-year-old right-winger had 12 goals and 30 points for Montreal in 78 games last season.

HURRICANES 2 BRUINS 1

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Sebastian Aho’s third-period goal gave Carolina a win over Boston in a matchup of early leaders in the Eastern Conference.

Pyotr Kochetkov made 14 saves to improve his record to 8-0-0, matching the longest season-opening winning streak by a goalie in franchise history. He tied former teammate Frederik Andersen, who set the mark five years ago.

Jackson Blake also scored for the Hurricanes, who played their first home game in two weeks following a 3-1-1 road trip.

Carolina killed two power plays in the final five minutes, helping it halt Boston’s eight-game points streak.

Pavel Zacha scored for the Bruins, who had a two-game winning streak snapped. Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves.

Aho’s eighth goal of the season came with 9:41 remaining shortly after Boston’s Matthew Poitras hit the post with a backhanded attempt on an open net. Aho has a team-high 19 points for the team with the best record in the league.

Zacha scored 1:31 into the game on a power play, but the Bruins failed to convert the rest of the game.

ISLANDERS 4 PREDATORS 3 (SO)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Kyle Palmieri and Bo Horvat scored in a shootout to lead New York to a victory over Nashville.

Horvat, Anthony Duclair and Brayden Schenn scored in regulation for New York. Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves and denied both Nashville attempts in the shootout to record his first win since Nov. 14, 2024.

Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist, Alexander Kerfoot and Ryan O’Reilly scored and Juuse Saros made 25 saves for Nashville, which fell to 0-5 in games that have extended beyond regulation this season.

The Islanders led 3-0 early in the second before the Predators drew even.

Duclair scored at 3:07 of the opening period and Schenn followed at 8:07 of the first. The goal was the 300th of Schenn’s career.

Horvat’s goal at 1:08 of the second came on a one-timer off of a cross-ice pass from Matthew Schaefer, who has points in five straight games.

The Islanders had lost their previous seven games at Nashville, with their last victory coming on Oct. 28, 2017.

PANTHERS 5 JETS 1

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe scored twice, Matthew Tkachuk had four assists and Florida extended Winnipeg’s slide to six games.

Brady Tkachuk had a goal and two assists, Niko Mikkola had a goal and assist, and Sam Reinhart rounded out the scoring for Florida, which scored three times on the power play. The Panthers salvaged their four-game trip with a pair of wins after opening with back-to-back defeats. Seth Jones had three assists.

Akira Schmid made 24 saves for his fourth victory in five starts.

Adam Lowry scored for Winnipeg, his second of the season and first short-handed. The Jets haven’t won since opening the season 4-1-1.

Clay Stevenson stopped 19 shots.

The Jets’ power play has gone stale at 0-for-14 over their last five games and 2-for-18 at home this season.

Florida scored three times by the 10:18 mark of the first period. The Tkachuk brothers have combined for 35 points in the first 13 games this season.

WILD 3 MAMMOTH 1

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Kirill Kaprizov scored his NHL-leading 14th goal of the season and added an assist, Jesper Wallstedt stopped 26 of the 27 shots he faced, and Minnesota beat Utah.

Joel Eriksson Ek and Maxim Shabanov also had goals while Quinn Hughes had two assists for the Wild, who have won three straight and went 3-1-1 on a five-game road trip.

Utah’s Logan Cooley scored with 1:21 to play to spoil Wallstedt’s shutout bid.

Kaprizov scored on the power play just 48 seconds into the second period to give the Wild a 2-0 lead. He has multiple points in three consecutive games and has scored a goal in eight of his last nine games.

Kaprizov is also tied with Alexander Ovechkin for the fifth-most goals scored in October in NHL history.

Eriksson Ek also scored on the power play with less than five minutes to play in the first period and has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his last seven games.

Karel Vejmelka made 27 stops for the Mammoth, who have lost three of their last five games.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4 SENATORS 1

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Raphael Lavoie scored his first career goal, a tap-in eight minutes into the third period to put Vegas ahead for good in its victory over Ottawa, ending the Golden Knights’ three-game losing streak.

Braeden Bowman scored a power-play goal for the Golden Knights, and William Karlsson and Jack Eichel each added an empty-netter. Nic Dowd got his 200th career point with a secondary assist on Lavoie’s goal.

Adin Hill stopped 25 shots, including a daring charge out of the net. Fellow goalie Carter Hart did not play after sustaining an undisclosed injury during the morning skate.

Shane Pinto scored on a power play for the Senators, who opened a five-game trip. Jonas Johansson made 25 saves.

CANUCKS 6 DUCKS 5 (OT)

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Filip Hronek scored a power-play goal with 11 seconds left in overtime to cap a run of four consecutive goals by Vancouver, which snapped a 10-game losing streak with a comeback win over Anaheim.

The Canucks, who won for just the third time this season, trailed 5-2 after Anaheim’s A.J. Greer scored his second goal of the game with 7:37 to play in regulation.

But Jamie Oleksiak pulled Vancouver within 5-3 just 31 seconds later.

Jonathan Lekkerimaki then scored twice less than a minute apart — the second with 1:57 left in regulation — to send the game into overtime.

In addition to his winning goal, Hronek also had an assist. Liam Ohgren and Brock Boeser also had goals for Vancouver, while Elias Pettersson added a pair of assists. Leevi Merilainen made 18 saves.

The Ducks jumped to a 4-1 lead after two periods. Greer scored in the first period, then Jeff Malott, Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson added second-period goals. Sennecke’s came on the power play.

Jackson LaCombe had three assists for the Ducks and Lukas Dostal made 27 saves.

SABRES 2 SHARKS 0

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Colten Ellis made 23 saves in his first appearance in more than two weeks to lead Buffalo to a victory over San Jose.

Olen Zellweger scored in the second period and Ellis did the rest to earn his second career shutout, robbing Kiefer Sherwood from point-blank range with 4:01 left in the game. Ellis was pulled in the second period of his last start for Buffalo on Oct. 12 against Florida.

Zach Benson added an empty-net goal for the Sabres.

The Sabres beat the Sharks for the eighth time in the last nine meetings between the teams, including a shutout win last March in San Jose.

Yaroslav Askarov made 38 saves for San Jose in the first game back from a six-game road trip. The Sharks have only one regulation win in 13 games this season.

The Associated Press